BENGALURU: Former minister and Yeshwantpur MLA ST Somashekar has become a thorn in the flesh for the BJP after he openly opposed the saffron party’s alliance with the JDS for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Now, the BJP state disciplinary committee has put the onus on former chief minister BS Yediyurappa to convince and instruct Somashekar to not damage the party’s image anymore. Somashekar was among the 17 opposition MLAs who joined the BJP and helped Yediyurappa form the government in 2018.
According to informed sources, Somashekar won the bypolls and proved his mettle as a mass leader and hence the BJP was hesitant to take stringent action against him despite him going against the party high command’s decision. Since, the MLA now is hinting at joining the Congress by holding parleys with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and DyCM DK Shivakumar, state BJP leaders have started attacking him albeit indirectly.
“We must follow the party high command’s decision and Somashekar is no exception. Otherwise, let him quit and join the party in which he will be happy,” former minister and senior BJP leader KS Eshwarappa said.
Another senior leader C T Ravi criticised Somashekar for always changing his loyalties. But former DyCM Dr CN Ashwath Narayan said Somashekar took the liberty of questioning the top brass’ decision on the alliance which is an anti-party activity. However, some of the leaders within the party expected that Somashekar would quit the party on his own by resigning as MLA.